For your second lesson, we’re going to switch gears and focus on the presence sliders, which control the quality (or texture) of your detail. These sliders include:

Contrast

Clarity

Texture

Dehaze

Saturation

Vibrance

Once you’ve created the general environment of your image with the tonal sliders, the next step is to enhance those tonal relationships with your presence sliders. Here is where you get to fine-tune the strength of your detail by controlling how much attention specific focal points demand through local contrast.

For example, enhancing the contrast and texture of your foreground can direct the eyes away from other elements in your frame….or inversely, subduing the contrast and texture will let the eyes explorer other elements in your frame.

Said another way…

The presence sliders take the data you built up with your tonal sliders and moves the luminosity of those pixels around to enhance the texture, contrast, and detail…..which gives you a more interesting image without damaging your photo.

Here’s what we’ll discuss in the following lesson:

The exact changes the presence sliders make to your image, and how they can influence one another.

Different examples of when it’s appropriate to use one slider over the others.

The importance of enhancing detail locally…and the potential issues with making global presence adjustments.

How to counterbalance qualities in your image to further enhance your contrast and saturation.

Assignment: Enhance the Flow and Balance with the Presence Sliders

While it may seem that the presence sliders are designed to simply enhance the quality of your tones, they can make quite an impactful difference in the flow and balance of your composition. As mentioned in the video lesson, the luminosity, contrast, and saturation of your focal points determine how much attention they demand from the viewer…which influences the entire composition.

Take the image(s) from the last lesson on tonal adjustments, and enhance the composition by using your presence sliders.

Consider the following questions while adjusting your detail:

Which focal points do you want to demand the most attention? How can you use your local adjustment tools with your presence sliders to enhance their dominance in the frame?

Which focal points do you find distracting and want to subdue? How can you use your local adjustment tools with your presence sliders to reduce their dominance in the frame?

Remember that counterbalancing your focal points is just as powerful as adjusting the focal point themselves. Can you reduce the attention of your supporting detail to enhance the visual draw of your focal point(s)?

Contrast will adjust your entire tonal range, clarity will adjust the midtones, and texture will adjust the high-frequency detail of your midtones. Consider this intensity scale when making your adjustments.

The dehaze slider can do much more than simply remove haze. Consider the different effects this slider can make on your tones and how it can be used to enhance/subdue your focal points.

Each adjustment will have a side-effect. Be aware of this, and take the appropriate steps to reverse it if necessary.

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